Ascents as various tick types as alpine by Alex Mougenot

A fun experience and adventure. It's cool to traverse that part of the world through some rugged country, though the real highlights of this trip for me was the beautiful hike in to Line Valley, walking through otherworldly Labrynth clouded in a mysterious fog, and staying in the old school Pine Valley Hut.

Good learning in assessing tat quality and routefinding. I found the climbing on the 18 pitch to be quite enjoyable. I climbed the left chimney in one long pitch to the summit, with a bit of simulling, after initially climbing the chockstoned-chimney on the right and foreseeing too much rope drag.

Not mega classic for me, but still good fun. The Acropolis looks mega and will be the focus next time!

Poor objective climbing on poor rock, though the INCREDIBLE exposure and position more than make up for this! The most unique route I've been on, and a highly valuable experience!

Lucked out with 5 days of no rain out there, though we awoke at 4:30am on Day 3 (our climbing day) to thick mist which made it harder to find the proper blade, ending up starting up the cliff just past the blade. After scrambling up 120m+ of scrub we realised this, abseiled back down into the gully off the R side of Blade Ridge, and fortunately found a way to mount the ridge from here.

At first climbing I was a bit out of sorts, not having done much of this style climbing for a long time, but after a few pitches I was back and firing to go. Battling drag is key on this for speed - the answer to this is usually running it out with the many aretes and corners to navigate. Man the ridge climbing is incredible! We reached the top of Blade Ridge at 6pm, and made the decision to not continue up the NW Face through the night and figure out the descent at night. Rapped and traversed into the left gully and climbed out back to camp.

Not without loose rock and poor gear, but heavy on exposure and position. Although the NW Face has a greater balance of good climbing movement, good rock, gear, and exposure - in my opinion the pure uniqueness of Blade Ridge trumps this.

Quick way down, but a a heady downclimb at one spot.

Alpine? Haha. Onsighted to about halfway up the steep final gully to the N Peak-E Peak saddle, then got off-route and did the East Face of North Peak. Found the top of Rocky Gully and down climbed.

A solo trip today. What an awesome adventure, and such a quick way up to the summit! Weather was almost cold with the clouds and wind. Highlights were seeing two tree snakes, the gorgeous views of the East Face, and a perfect little handcrack I found down low.

Awesome day out with Micah. Total whiteout at the top made for a surreal vibe